MMC: Knights of the Dark Goddess
by jimra
Summary: MMC Massive Multicrossed Continuity story. Kumon Ryu is having an interesting time dealing with Ranma's disappearance and a lover, but why does he keep on running into that Kaneda kid?
1. Prologue: Sealed

Knights of the Dark Goddess

An MMC fanfic by jimra

Author's note: The MMC (Massive Multicrossed Continuity) is a universe where I fit as many anime, manga, games, and anything else I could think of into a single timeline (barring crosses involving known dimensional or temporal movement). This is an idea that's been banging around in my head for at least a year, and now I'm starting on the first small story (almost a side story) within this continuity. We've got everything from Ranma ½ (bet you didn't see that coming) to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire—all in the same timeline without any cop-out dimensional hopping! If you don't know what's going on, that's alright. Just go with the flow; it'll all make sense in the end. : )

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to try to name all the stuff I'm crossing here, so sufficed to say that I own nothing but the continuity, and I'm flexible on that.

* * *

Prologue: Sealed

* * *

'NOOOO!' the woman mentally screamed, her eyes wide and blazing. Unfortunately for those around her, her mental screaming was not silent. Several people in flowing, intricate robes fell to the ground in the small plaza, blood running from their noses and ears.

The woman performing the telepathic assault stood tall, over two meters, with grey hair twisted into multiple, complex braids. She wore robes similar to the people around her, but they were even more intricate. However, her most striking feature was her eyes: where they would be white on a normal person, hers were blue, and her irises were as black as the pupils.

The woman clutched at her head as though in pain, but if she felt it, it became the entire world for the people trying to flee her rage. 'Sister!' she cried in her mind as she clenched her eyes shut, tears leaking from the slits. 'How could you do this to me!'

Behind closed lids, the grey haired woman watched again the cause of her suffering, the architect of her pain. Three men, clothed as her victims but with strange, black lines on their faces, held blue-glowing energy swords, their final strikes coming just as she arrived. She remembered her eyes widening at the sight of crimson droplets spraying from the final bodies to join the pile on the ground, the fierce, satisfied look in the eyes of the men as the last of her followers fell to their savagery.

Without thought, the woman had torn their minds apart, searching for an answer. All three men were lobotomized by her probe before they knew she touched their minds, and in her frantic search for answers, a face and a name emerged from the chaos. The face of a young, blue haired woman, with striking yet compassionate eyes still filled her vision, and the word continued to echo in her mind. Jurai.

With a scream of rage, pain, and sorrow, she opened her eyes once more, this time a look fury entering those blue orbs. Teeth clenched, she felt past the physical realm, past the void-structure of space, past the planet, system, galaxy, universe, and plane, reaching into the true astral existence beyond it all, and she pulled.

To her sight, the three dimensions surrounding her distorted, twisting, bending, almost to the tearing point. A furious gleam of manic glee blazed in her eyes at the vision, and the silent screams of all on the planet were music to her tortured ears, the cries of the guilty justly punished.

Finally, deciding that they had suffered enough, she jerked on the underlying existence of reality once more, harder this time. This time, she rent space itself, and the planet ceased to exist, returned to its quintessential form in the astral beyond.

'Wait for me, sister,' she thought in a grating tone. 'I will join you soon...'

* * *

A blue haired entity slowly opened her eyes, the tear tracts on her face quite fresh from her viewing. 'Sister,' she mentally whispered, entreating existence itself for an answer. 'How could you do this?'

After the third planet she saw obliterated in such a manner, the third colony world of her chosen people, the tears were familiar. 'Why?' the thought came once again, this time unbidden. 'Why would you do such a thing, such an abomination?'

Thousands of years before, three sisters and one of their number's lover had entered this universe, but they were being removed, systematically it seemed. First went the oldest sister's lover, his form shattered and thrown to the far corners of the universe. Then followed the eldest sister, too lost in her sorrow to continue.

Now, her younger sister had, it seemed, gone completely mad, and if she did not do something about it, nothing would remain of her chosen people, nothing would remain of Jurai. While tears slowly continued their lonely path from her eyes to drip from her chin, resolve crystallized in her stomach like a solid lump of frozen methane. 'This insanity must end, or all the younger races will suffer. I must stop her...'

* * *

The sphere floated before her in the star-strewn void, slowly rotating to display its full beauty in greens, blues, whites, and browns, the homeworld of her sister's chosen people, and the homeworld of her own followers' murderers. 'I go to avenge you,' thought the grey haired woman, her face impassive and eyes narrowed. 'Your killers shall not survive you much longer...'

Propelling herself through the void, she traveled toward the beauteous, life-filled planet. However, her path was suddenly blocked, the bright light startling after the darkness of space and the dim light of distant stars. Slowly, the brilliant blue-white light resolved itself into a geometrical shape, and elongated pentagon. She grit her teeth against the sheer power contained within the construct of astral energy as the first was joined by another and another.

'Light Hawk Wings...' The thought ground out as a growl. 'Is she coming?'

A moment more of patience answered her question, and before her, arrayed in a circle of points, ten Wings of the Light Hawk became manifest in the physical universe. At their center, a beautiful, blue haired woman, one from fantasy or nightmare, stood in the void.

'Why, sister?' the thought of the other woman entered her head, and the grey haired woman imagined the unclean feel of slime in its company. 'Why are you killing my people?'

Shock, outrage, and pure unadulterated hate flowed like a nauseating ocean through the younger woman. 'How dare she!' she mentally screamed. Directing her thoughts to the other, she continued in the same tone, 'How dare you, older sister,' she thought the title with contempt. 'How dare you protect them after what they did! How dare you, Tsunami!'

* * *

Shock. That was the only descriptor of Tsunami's feeling at her sister's pronouncement, or perhaps condemnation, regarding Jurai. Her eyes wide but glazed, Tsunami lost almost all of her concentration, and all but two of the defending Light Hawk Wings flickered from existence.

'T... Tokimi...' she hesitantly thought, uncertain of what her grey haired sister was talking about. 'What are you talking...?'

Eyes finally unglazed, she saw emptiness. Tokimi was gone, and confusion once more reigned in Tsunami. 'Where...?'

Agony. The agony of her people, her chosen followers. 'NOOO!' the mental scream rippled out from Tsunami's position, high over the planet Jurai as she saw the surface ripple. She moved.

A cruel smile played across Tokimi's lips as the fabric of reality rippled, writhing around her. 'Now they pay,' she thought coldly. 'Now they finally pay for what they did to my people.

So engrossed was she in her justice, she failed to notice blaze of power behind her until it was almost too late. The mental scream, like ice-cold, serrated blades raking across her mind tore her from her manipulation of the astral existence, and she spun to see a livid Tsunami, all ten Wings blazing around her.

'NOOOO!' came the blue haired woman's mental cry of anguish. 'You will not take my followers from me!'

Tokimi reached out, trying to wrap the quintessential fabric of existence around her in defense, but it was too late to avoid Tsunami's rage. Blindingly bright, searingly brilliant, Tsunami's Light Hawk Wings enveloped her, and pain ruled absolute.

* * *

As the cocoon of pure, astral energy faded, Tsunami fell to the ground, weeping. Now, she was alone, and she had been forced to imprison her one remaining sister. The blue haired woman writhed on the ground, her sobs echoing in the now-stable atmosphere of Jurai, and her followers surrounded her, feeling her pain and wishing their goddess comfort.

* * *

Thousands of years later...

'Clay has failed.'

The thought rippled coldly from seemingly nowhere, and a face appeared in the void of the amphitheater. With a long, flowing beard and hair matching the beard's absolute lack of color, it stared upward with emotionless, blue eyes.

"What shall I do, Lady Tokimi?" it asked, its voice completely emotionless but for its respect for the Lady.

Slowly, a form wavered into existence above the face, grey hair and intricate robes flowing from nothingness. "We do nothing," she replied coolly. "Clay caused his own failure, and his punishment, while light, is acceptable for the moment."

"As you wish, my lady," answered the face, and its visage slowly faded from the audience chamber.

'Tsunami...' the thought came unbidden to Tokimi's mind as she slowly sat in her throne. This palace had been both seat of rulership and prison to her for thousands of years, ever since her older sister entombed her here. 'Some day, Tsunami, I'll repay you for my long imprisonment...'

As though bidden by her thoughts, and as so long ago, a Wing materialized before her, followed by another and another. At first, Tokimi's eyes narrowed, anticipating one or two wing to simply renew her prison, but this time all ten appeared, and Tokimi's eyes widened in recognition of her sister's most spectacular entrance.

Tsunami materialized slowly behind the incredible display of astral existence, and as her eyes opened, Tokimi realized that something greater than Clay's failure had occurred. The grey haired woman shuddered and the anger in Tsunami's eyes as her older sister's piercing stare reached out to caress her mind.

'Tokimi, why?' A humorless quirk of Tsunami's lips made her seem to smirk for a single instant before returning to her original, piercing gaze. 'I never thought I would ask that again... I suppose sealing you within one of your own palaces was not adequate to contain your strange tendency to evil...'

Tokimi's eyes widened at Tsunami's implication, but before she could react, she felt Tsunami's power around her. 'Considering that you sent Clay after my people as your proxy, you leave me little choice in this matter. If I'm to keep my people safe, I must eliminate you entirely.'

A strange, nauseating feeling welled up in Tokimi's gut at her sister's cold pronouncement. It occurred to her, in a detached, morbid manner, that Tsunami was awfully casual about fratricide, but then again, her sister had used her followers to eliminate Tokimi's own people, so she supposed that the blue haired woman was capable of anything.

For just a fleeting moment, Tsunami's eyes softened, and her thoughts conveyed the same concern and love Tokimi remembered from their youth. 'For what it's worth, Tokimi, I still love you, and if you can ever overcome this insanity that grips you to the point where you do not kill innocents, I will welcome you once more into my heart.'

Eyes wide with shock and outrage, Tokimi almost didn't notice the wings converging on her throne, and even as they cocooned her once more, she screamed her rage at existence itself, and her palace faded into the void.

* * *

As Tokimi's final realm wavered and crumbled into quintessence from her final scream, Tsunami finally folded in on herself, her cold demeanor collapsing like a black hole. She lay in the fetal position in space, floating with nothing but her tears and wailing to accompany her. The first time she was forced to imprison her sister was bad enough, but to cut her off from conscious thought in hopes that her unconscious mind would repair what ever warped insanity infected her consciousness was beyond what Tsunami ever wished.

'Please,' she begged the universe itself. 'Heal my sister Tokimi. Washu doesn't remember me, Tokimi is bound until she regains her sanity, and Atomusk is shattered. Please... Don't make me the last of us... Alone...'

* * *

Dissolution.

That word isn't usually used as a feeling, but in this case, it was an existence. No stability. Thought melding with reality, matter with energy, physical with astral. Nothing stable, nothing firm, nothing to hold to. Reality was not.

So an existence wavered between entity and non-entity, being and nothing.

Singularly, in the chaos of limbo, was there a point of stability, and the... being? strove toward that point, reaching for the pin-point without knowing or understanding why.

* * *

Author's notes:

As you might imagine, this is something of a darkfic, but a tale of a dark goddess and her knights couldn't be anything else. In any case, the next chapter will deal with characters other than Tokimi and Tsunami, so don't worry about that. As long as you read the MMC note at the beginning of the prologue, then you've read everything else I really have to say. Oh yeah, it's pretty obvious which anime this one is about, but there'll be a cross in chapter one. Until next time.


	2. Chapter 1: Cracks

Knights of the Dark Goddess

An MMC fanfic by jimra

* * *

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to try to name all the stuff I'm crossing here, so sufficed to say that I own nothing but the continuity, and I'm flexible on that.

Suggested Listening Material: Evanescence (Fallen), anything from Akira

Chapter One: Cracks

* * *

I stopped my bike on one of the many overpasses in the area, surveying the wreckage of another bike. The smoke from the wreck was an oily black cloud, rising from the conflagration of flammable liquid and twisted metal. The rider was sprawled on the ground about two meters from the flames; he appeared to be a kid, maybe fourteen or fifteen.

"Kiddy biker gangs," I muttered in disgust. This type of group was becoming increasingly common in Tokyo lately, especially in the slums. "Guess I should see if I can help him, even if he's an idiot."

A slight sneer on my face, I revved my bike and hit the throttle, shooting around on the raised highway toward the wreck. Unfortunately for the kid, the sound of three other bikes racing up to the scene brought me to a halt on another overpass, closer than before but not nearly to the site.

"Tetsuo!" I heard one of the newly arrived bikers call out, the one riding a majorly supped up chopper. The kid looked a little older than the wreck victim, but still definitely a kid, and cocky, too. The red biker gear and short haircut seemed to accentuate his attitude. "Are you alright?"

Sitting back on my motorcycle, I watched as the entire scene went to hell. Five helicopters were suddenly circling the area, and I was instantly glad that I wasn't down there. The fact that the JSDF troops put the kids on the ground and cuffed them only heightened my wish to avoid notice, and it seemed that my wish came true as the choppers lifted with both the soldiers and their new prisoners.

I continued to look at the scene for some time after that as the fire from the first kid's bike finally burned itself out, but that's not what I was watching. Instead, my reverie took me back to why I was in Tokyo at all: a man named Saotome Ranma.

* * *

"Oh!" exclaimed the young woman who had been, moments before, performing the morning ritual of washing the sidewalk in front of the genkan, her voice, as always, gentle even in surprise. "We haven't seen you in some time, Kumon-san."

I gave Tendo Kasumi a lopsided smile as I climbed off my bike, walking the last two meters to the Tendos' genkan. I left my pack on the back of my bike, and on such a warm, mid-spring day, I had removed my camo jacket. Slinging my jacket over my shoulder, I allowed my smile to become a bit more genuine. It wasn't that I felt no pleasure at being here, it was simply that the pleasure I felt would in no way make this young woman happy.

"I s'pose it has been a while," I replied when I reached her. "You're Kasumi, right?"

Her ever present smile brightened a bit as I said her name, and she immediately led me inside. "You look like you've traveled quite a ways to get here, Kumon-san. Please, come inside and I'll make you some tea."

I followed her quietly, but I made certain to keep a wary eye out for my adversary. Nerima actually looked in much better repair than my last visit, but I couldn't believe that Ranma was actually toning his fights down. All things considered, if it weren't for that Tendo girl he liked so much, I would believe what all the evidence was telling me, that Ranma was no longer in Nerima.

After leading me to the table in the tea room, Kasumi walked into the kitchen for the tea. While she was gone, I briefly surveyed my surroundings. Here, as everywhere else, the lack of quick repairs made me sure that no intense fighting had occurred here in some time, and that fact, along with the fact that I had yet to see any other Tendos or either of the Saotomes, continued to force me toward the answer I didn't want.

I must have really been spaced out, because the next moment I found myself jumping halfway to the ceiling as a hand gently tapped me on the shoulder. Kasumi's "Oh my!" reached my ears moments before I landed, and I immediately apologized.

"Gomen, Tendo-san," I said quickly as I sat again at the table. "I must have been thinking about something."

"It's all right, Kumon-san," she replied, her smile back as though it never left. "And please, call me Kasumi."

"Alright, Kasumi," I said, my own smile returning in the genuine manner that this girl seemed to bring out in everyone. "But only if you call me Ryu."

She nodded her acquiescence to my request, and I belatedly noticed the tea and onigiri on the table in front of me. Without waiting, Kasumi answered my obvious question. "You looked hungry when you arrived, and I had these in the refrigerator for later."

Smiling my thanks, I proceeded to enjoy the best cooking I'd had since I pretended to be Ranma and stayed with his mother. Kasumi, for her part, just sat there and watched me eat, a small smile ever-present on her face. As I finished the last rice ball, she poured some tea into each of our cups, and once again, she preempted my next question.

"Well," she began. "I can think of only one reason you would come here, and unfortunately, I cannot help you. Ranma stopped living here a little over three years ago. He used to visit every once in a while, but he hasn't even done that in a year..."

As she said that last, it almost seemed that Kasumi's tone was hurt, like she felt like she had driven my rival away. Seeing a look in her eyes I knew to mean that she needed to talk to someone, I simply nodded my acceptance of her information and let her continue.

"Not only Ranma is gone," she said in a slightly tired and sad voice. "Nabiki hasn't visited in quite a while, but I suppose we cannot expect her to come back from college in England very often. Why she decided to complete her upper-division courses abroad is beyond me."

At that point, Kasumi paused to take a sip of her tea. "And Akane... She was so devastated when Ranma vanished... And now she's taking after Nabiki about studying abroad; she's attending college in New York."

Another sip of tea and a little more hurt in her voice distinguished the statements about Nabiki from the ones about Akane, and I thought I understood. Kasumi may have mothered Nabiki some, but being the financier of the family had given Nabiki some measure of equal in Kasumi's eyes. Akane, on the other hand, was the youngest daughter, and Kasumi must think of her almost as her own daughter after their mother died. Now, Akane had left home, and Kasumi was feeling some variant of empty-nest syndrome.

"Of course," she continued before my thoughts could go any further. "Now that everyone is gone, Otousan spends most of his time with the Saotomes. Nodoka-obasan is very worried about Ranma, and Ojisan and Otousan are trying to help her feel better."

She took another sip of tea, allowing my thoughtsto drift to that kind woman who I'd taken advantage of back when I was trying to steal the secrets of the Umisenken. I know I felt something more than a simple martial artist's wife from her, a power and skill that she kept carefully hidden, perhaps even ki carefully shielded from others. Her clumsiness with a sword seemed too calculated to come from an unskilled person, but Ranma and Genma had always been too scared to see it.

That's when something else struck me, and I voice my thoughts. "So, Ranma finally told her the truth, huh? Bout time!"

Kasumi almost didn't seem to understand, but then her eyes showed understanding. "Oh," she replied, smiling again. "I forgot how long you've been away. Yes, Ranma told his mother very shortly after you left."

That statement brought a smile to my own lips. 'At least I was able to help you a little bit, lady,' I thought.

Moving away from the subject of Ranma, I asked, "So, what are you doing with yourself, Kasumi?"

"Oh, I've enrolled in college myself now," she replied. "I'm a nursing student at Nerima community college. What about you, Ryu?"

"Actually," I said, hearing a little arrogance slip into my voice. "I've been training hard since Ranma beat me with the Umisenken. I'm actually here for a rematch, if I can find him."

Nodding, Kasumi said, "Yes, I'm sure that Ranma-kun would enjoy such a match. I'm sorry we cannot help you more, but if you would like, you may stay the night before you continue your search."

* * *

I did stay the night. I enjoyed Kasumi's cooking for dinner, a long soak in the furo, a nice, soft futon in the guest room, and her cooking again at breakfast. We talked about all sorts of things, and I think I actually have a friend at the Tendo dojo now. Finally, she made me promise to notify her if I learned anything about Ranma's whereabouts. I kept my promise, and I haven't talked to Kasumi once in the six months since I left the Tendo dojo. It had been early May when I moved on, and now, with two thousand coming to a close, I was no closer to finding Ranma than when I visited the Tendos. It was like he dropped off the face of the earth.

Since leaving, I'd visited quite a few places Ranma had been in search of the wayward Saotome, including Mt. Terror, Horizon, and even Jusendo. Now I was back in Tokyo, and I had no idea where to go next. I even visited the Saotomes, though my reception there was much less cordial than at the Tendo dojo. Nodoka-san did forgive me for impersonating her son, but she was very cold during the hour I was a guest in her home. Once again, I felt that this woman was hiding great power behind the screen of domestic life, but I found no way to see what that power truly was. She did, however, tell me a bit about where she had taken Ranma two years earlier. That is what led me to the Masaki shrine outside Yokohama.

* * *

Shutting down my bike and flicking out the kick-stand with my heel, I walked toward the small house at the base of the stairs leading to the shrine. The meadow where the house stood was a beautiful carpet of green, and the nearby lake caught the afternoon sun like a sapphire. Everything seemed more vibrant in the cloudless sunlight, but I noticed some inconsistencies. The meadow seemed a bit overgrown, and the stone steps leading toward the temple were unwashed, an uncommon occurrence at a Shinto shrine. While not in ill repair, the house had not been cared for in some time, and cobwebs and dust were prominent as I made my approach. Obviously, no one had been here in at least a month.

Regardless of the evidence, I knocked at the front door and waited, hoping that appearances were deceiving, but as I expected, no one answered the door. Deciding that the house was empty, I walked next up the stone stairs to the shrine, and the evidence that no one had cared for this place in some time became more apparent. The forest around the stairs had begun to overgrow the stairs, and if the master of this shrine ever returned, there would be a great deal of work to get the place back in order.

Finally reaching the stone courtyard of the shrine proper, I knew that there was no chance anyone was here either. This place had definitely seen some heavy fighting, and the quick repairs and small inconsistencies in the new construction were easily seen by my trained eye. I surveyed the area from the top of the stairs with my eyes and my ki sense, but no one was present. Finally, deciding that I would learn nothing here, I walked slowly back down the stairs, discouraged at my findings.

I was just about to get back on my bike when I saw the van, and for some reason, I decided to wait for it. I've known to follow my gut instincts in most situations since I was a kid, so I knew that I would find some answers with the van's passengers. Finally, the van pulled up to the house, and two people stepped out. The driver was a middle-aged man in a business suit, and the passenger was a quite beautiful young woman, probably still even a teenager, wearing a hakama complete with katana. They hadn't noticed me or my bike yet, so I was able to catch a bit of their conversation as they approached the house.

"I'm sorry, Motoko-chan," said the man, sounding a bit apologetic. "I told you I didn't think Katsuhito or others were back yet. You should probably go see Nodoka if you want more training; she knows a great deal about kenjutsu."

The girl shook her head and replied, "I already asked Nodoka-sensei for help, Nobuyuki, and she refused until her father returns so that we can use these grounds. She also seemed awfully worried about Ranma."

I almost chuckled at that: Nodoka did everything in her power to downplay or hide her skill with the sword, but I'd already guessed the truth. This girl walked like a true fighter, and the way she kept herself guarded at all times definitely marked her as dangerous. If she wanted to learn kenjutsu from Saotome-san, then the Saotome matriarch was very good indeed.

As they entered the house, I could no longer hear their conversation, and I decided to make my presence known. I had almost reached the door when I felt it, that tingling on the back of my neck that signified danger, and once again my danger sense saved me a lot of blood loss. I threw myself into a shoulder roll to the right just in time to avoid the vertical slash of a katana knifing through the air where my head had been instants earlier, and my kippup at the end of the roll dodged her follow-up strike.

I jumped onto the nearest edge of the roof to get some distance, but Motoko gave me no time to speak. Leaping after me, she attacked with a three strike maneuver starting with an unconventional, but very effective, thrust. I say it's very effective because I still have a small scar on the left side of my chest where she connected, but I'd still have to say that actually hitting me was worse for her at the time. While I'm still impressed with her skills, that's when I got mad.

Snarling, I leapt away again, but this time I was baiting her. She took the bait easily, and when her sword came close again, I snagged the back of the blade between my thumb and forefinger. A deft twist from there left the girl unarmed, and suddenly I saw surprise on her face. Unfortunately for her, surprise isn't enough for me to stop when someone needs a lesson in attacking better fighters.

My first punch caught her across the jaw, sending her spinning away, and my follow-up crescent kick running counter to her spin knocked her off her feet. Finally, I jumped after her and reacquainted her with the ground using my elbow. By then, she was unconscious, and any further lessons I could teach would be lost on her. It was only then that I remembered that our little fight had an audience.

The middle-aged man, Nobuyuki, was standing stiffly and looking at me, aghast at what I'd done to Motoko. For my part, I wasn't looking too happy at that moment either, and my anger was quite evident in my voice when I spoke. "So, do you people always attack unarmed, peaceful visitors with katana, or am I just special?"

Nobuyuki's mouth just worked silently for a moment, but if he was going to say anything, a soft moan from the student in my little lesson preempted it. Putting aside my anger for the moment, a crouched and lifted the girl in my arms. Turning to Nobuyuki, I said, "I didn't do anything to hurt her permanently; I just thought she needed a lesson for attacking me like that. Is there anywhere she can rest? She'll be out for about an hour, and when she comes to, she's gonna need something to eat."

Nodding dumbly, Nobuyuki led me into the house, and after asking me to wait in the living room, he ran upstairs. I took that opportunity to look at my former opponent, and with her cradled in my arms, I saw that she really was quite beautiful, even with the nasty bruise forming on her jaw where I'd clocked her. Seeing her like this, I was glad that I didn't do anything to permanently harm her.

After about two minutes, Nobuyuki returned with a futon, and five minutes later, Motoko was resting comfortably, and I was sitting on the couch with my host.

"I must apologize for her actions," he began in a tone that mollified me a bit. "She's always been a bit high strung around men, and she didn't even tell me what she was doing. She just attacked you."

"Alright," I replied, finally releasing my anger. "No harm done, I guess. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Kumon Ryu, and I'm here searching for Saotome Ranma."

"Pleased to meet you, Kumon-san," he said. "My name is Masaki Nobuyuki, and this is my home... well usually. Ranma was here for about six months in ninety eight, and he visited us a few times since. However, no one has seen or heard from him since about a year ago. It's too bad, really; my nephew is a good kid."

Nodding through his story, I replied, "I didn't actually expect to find him here, but Saotome Nodoka-san told me about this place, and I was hoping to find a lead on tracking him down."

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you more, Kumon-san," the dark haired man said in a sincere voice. "However, I can offer you our hospitality for the night, if you wish."

I shook my head, more for the idea of being gone when Motoko woke up than to avoid staying. "I have a hotel room in Yokohama that I already paid for, but thanks for the offer. I should probably be on my way."

I stood from the couch and began to make my way to the door, but before stepping out, I asked, "You said something about Katsuhito and the others not being back yet. Is Ranma with that group?"

Since I didn't turn around, I couldn't see him shaking his head, but the tone of his voice made the action clear. "No, that group includes my son and some of his friends. They went with Katsuhito on a training journey, and I have no idea how long they will be gone. It's been over a year and a half now."

Still without turning, I nodded. Walking back to my bike without any new clues was discouraging, and I had no idea where to go next. Finally, I set my sites on Tokyo. Ranma had to return there at some point.

* * *

That was my last stop before coming back here, well, except for that run-in with Ryoga, and I still have no leads. I'm almost ready to decide that he's dead, but something in me just won't accept that answer.

The wrecked motorcycle had burned down to smoldering during my reverie, and I was suddenly acutely aware that I'd been sitting here for quite a while. Glancing at my watch, I discovered, much to my surprise, that my little trip down memory lane had taken over an hour.

Cursing under my breath, I started my bike. Unfortunately, there were five bikers in clown masks approaching, and they didn't look friendly. Of course, I wasn't the one for whom this was unfortunate.

Revving my bike, I used my leg as the fulcrum of a circle to pull a quick one eighty, and then I peeled off on a collision course with their leader. A good fight right now was just the cathartic exercise I needed to burn off my frustration, and these guys were kind enough to offer it to me without any searching. Showing my teeth in a half smile, half snarl, I decided that I was in such a good mood that I wouldn't even permanently cripple them.

* * *

I reentered the hotel at about three thirty in the morning, and I tried to make my way directly to my room. Unfortunately, the night clerk was waiting for me.

"Kumon-san," he said with the same bored urgency I always associated with someone doing unpleasant but common duty. "I need to speak with you. You haven't paid your bill for the past three days, and we've been more than generous about keeping your room."

I almost snapped at the man that I needed sleep, but without breaking his face, I knew I wouldn't get any sleep in my room. Of course, if I did break his face, I would wake up on the wrong end of an arrest warrant. Digging into my pocket, I pulled out a wad of yen and thrust it into the man's stomach with a touch less force than would have winded him. The blow did push the man out of my way, so I continued toward my room while the attendant recovered and began counting the money. Those clowns had a surprising amount of cash on them, and I'd helped myself after helping them get a little sleep.

In the elevator, I hit the button for the fifth floor and leaned back against the railing. For some reason, I couldn't get the image of those kids being arrested by the JSDF out of my head. I had no particular liking for them, and yet something about that situation seemed wrong to me. In particular, I was worried about that first kid, Tetsuo.

'Do something about it, then,' came the thought, but it wasn't mine. Gritting my teeth, I said, "Who the fuck is messing with my head!"

'Who?' replied the thoughts, the mental voice sounding female, but the contact wavered, skipping across my brain. 'What is who?'

That one threw me for a loop, so I didn't answer immediately. Honestly, it was getting hard to think with the strange, fluctuating pressure on my mind, like a colossal child with immense power was randomly poking at my brain. I put a hand to my face, feeling the cold sweat on my forehead and cheek, and then the pressure increased to the point of pain.

Screaming, I collapsed to my knees, my hands holding my head. I don't know how long this went on, but as suddenly as those thoughts entered my head, the contact on my mind ceased. Breathing as though I'd just sprinted ten kilometers, I remained on my knees for another ten minutes, trying to recover from the experience.

Finally, I pulled myself from the floor, opened the elevator doors, and staggered to my room. Without even taking off my shoes, I fell into the bed and gratefully allowed consciousness to slip away.

* * *

When I woke, there was a terrible taste in my mouth, and my stomach was growling with an intense hunger. Blinking the grit from my eyes, I looked at the clock. 'Fourteen hours...' I thought. 'I must have been tired.'

I pulled myself up from the bed and caught an absolutely disgusting smell in the room... and then, I realized that it was me. 'Before food,' I thought ruefully, 'I need a shower.'

As I stripped off my clothes and tactical harness on the way to the bathroom, the last bits of my dream faded, leaving me with nothing but the impression of seeing someone with the most interesting eyes.

The bright afternoon sun seared my eyes as I stepped out of the front entrance of my hotel, and I assumed that my continued stay wouldn't be a problem since the clerk didn't stop me on the way out. Taking a quick inventory of my pockets, I found five thousand yen, my motorcycle license, my keys, and my compass. All in all, I was a little richer than I was before kicking the crap out of those biker idiots, and my stomach was insisting on food before anything else. With that in mind, I sat down on my bike and started it, noticing that my stomach wasn't the only thing empty as the low fuel light on my bike glowed into existence.

Turning my bike in the direction of traffic, I rode off toward the corner gas station, knowing that food would have to wait until I could actually get somewhere. I filled the tank on my motorcycle and paid the clerk pretty quickly, and then I was off to find some food. My hotel was in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, pretty centralized to anywhere I wanted to go. In fact, the longest haul from here that I'd had yet to do since visiting the Tendo dojo was my trip to Yokohama.

I rode down the street with more of a mind toward my stomach than my destination, and I'd have to say that my stomach has a pretty good sense of direction when I'm hungry. Well, it has a good one for finding good food, but maybe not for finding the best company. My destination ended up being Ucchan's Okonomiyaki.

I almost didn't go in, but my stomach was very insistent. In the end, I decided to bite the bullet and say hi to Ukyo. It really reminded me of the first time I was here, about three months ago.

* * *

"Welcome to Ucchan's!" came the cheery voice of the proprietor as I walked into the little okonomiyakiya. "Sit where ever ya like!"

The proprietor, Ucchan herself, stood behind the bar wearing a pretty standard okonomiyaki vendor's outfit. From the black tights and blue and white tunic to the white ribbon in her hair, she fit every description of a traditional vendor of Japanese pizza. She was also one of the few friends of Ranma who didn't know who I was.

Seeing that the restaurant wasn't very crowded, I took a seat at the bar. A moment later, Ukyo gave me quite a smile and asked, "What'll ya have?"

Glancing at the menu, I replied, "How 'bout two combination okonomiyaki?" I even smiled, if you can believe it. I swear that that girl's cheerfulness is infectious.

She nodded in reply, bobbing her chestnut hair, well, cutely, and immediately began making her signature dish on the hot griddle. I sat back in the stool, and was so engrossed in her cooking that I jumped when a soft voice spoke from my left.

"May I get you something to drink?" asked the waitress softly, her eyes looking demurely at the floor. In her pink kimono, she could have passed for a geisha, as far as I was concerned.

"Tea, please," I replied.

She nodded, walking away, and I returned my attention to Ukyo's cooking... or what I thought should still be cooking. Instead, I was looking at a plate containing my two combination okonomiyaki, and I couldn't help blinking.

"Fastest spatula in Japan," she said with a broad smile, handing me the food-laden plate. Much as I wanted to make some witty reply, the smell of the piping hot okonomiyaki won the argument for what would get attention first.

After finishing the first one, I looked at my host with a renewed respect for cooking arts in general and okonomiyaki in particular. It was one of the most delicious things I'd eaten in a very long time, and I said so.

Still smiling, she replied, "Well, I make the best okonomiyaki in Japan! Maybe even in the whole world!"

"I believe it," I replied, her cheerfulness still affecting me. "I've heard you can also fight, and now that I've seen you, I believe that too."

"Yeap," she said. "Kuonji Okonomiyaki Ryu is one of the most powerful cooking-based martial arts. By the look of you, you're no slouch in the fighting arts either."

Allowing a little smirk to show, I replied, "You could say that. I practice my family's style... and one other."

"Well, maybe we should have a match some time, then," she said, and for the first time I saw some fire beyond the cheerful demeanor.

Deciding to change the subject, I moved on to something else. "Your accent is from the Kansai region, isn't it? I bet you're from Kyoto originally."

"Good ear you've got there, sugar," she replied. "I'm not really sure of your accent."

"Kyushu," I answered. "But I've been to Kyoto many times. I really like that city."

We talked about Kyoto and other areas in Kansai for hours, and I pretty much forgot my reason for coming there in the first place. Kasumi had told me about Ranma's iinazuke mess, and this girl was one of them. That was why I was there, but she was so cheerful, so engaging, that I didn't want to bring up Ranma.

She managed to serve all her customers and still keep up a lively conversation with me over the rest of the afternoon and on, even through the dinner rush. Finally and before I knew it, it was closing time.

"Hey, sugar," said Ukyo. "I need to close up, now."

Her words surprised me so much that I had to look out of the front windows to confirm that it really was night, and as I did, she continued. "If ya like, you can hang around until I'm done, Ryu. Then we can have that little match."

Smiling back at her, I replied, "Alright. Hell, I'll even help you close, in that case."

It only took an hour to wipe down the restaurant and wash all the dishes, and I found myself sipping tea at the bar while Ukyo finished scraping and oiling the griddle. Right about the time I finished my cup, she set her cloth aside and said, "Alright, shall we go?"

"I've been meaning to ask, actually," I answered. "Where exactly do you spar around here?"

She smiled in a friendly way as she snagged what I took to be an ornament, a meter and a half long spatula, from above the bar and slung it on her back. "Follow me," she replied cryptically. With that, she began to climb the stairs.

Shrugging, I followed her up. The second floor of the restaurant was laid out very simply: three doors and a ladder leading to the roof. Making a brief stop in one of the rooms, her bedroom if I had to guess, she continued to lead me up to the roof.

"Usually," she said, turning to face me from the other side of the roof. "Konatsu and I spar up here. It's pretty out of the way, don't you think?"

"Don't people wonder about the sounds of fighting up here?"

She looked at me like I was stupid and replied, "This is Nerima."

I just shrugged, briefly noting the waitress had changed into a kunoichi outfit and was in position to watch the match. 'Figures,' I thought. 'Everyone in Nerima has to know how to fight.'

Without further ado, Ukyo unslung her huge spatula and brought it up as a weapon. "Ready when you are, Ryu!"

Deciding to take her invitation at face value, I dropped into a fighting crouch and leapt forward, setting up for a massive drop-kick. It wasn't quite up to the Yamasenken level of fighting, but I am an honorable man, and Saotome Ranma made me promise to seal my best techniques.

For her part, Ukyo parried my attack, and with surprising swiftness for a weapon that size, she swung around for a broad-side hit on my left shoulder that sent me tumbling. I rolled to me feet, a new respect for her fighting style forcing me to be more cautious. However, I didn't have much time to think as three mini-spatula shuriken spun from Ukyo's hand.

I jumped and rolled as Ukyo dominated the fight during its beginning. If I closed, her battle spatula would fend me off, and any time I tried to back off, more of her seemingly inexhaustible supply of throwing spatulas would keep me moving. She even used a one-kilo pound flour bag to try to blind me!

Still, after about seven minutes of this treatment, I was tired of it. With more annoyance than anger, I closed with her once more, and her confident smirk faded as I took a blow from her spatula only to get a hold of it. A quick twist and shoulder ram combo, and she no longer had her primary weapon. I didn't expect her to give up then, and she didn't disappoint me, fighting twice as hard with kempo and her throwing spatulas. Unfortunately for her, her style lost most of its power when lacking the primary weapon, and I finally ended the match five minutes later.

"Wow," said Ukyo as she tried to catch her breath after the intense spar. "You're really good. In fact, you're almost as good as Ranma."

That was it: the end of my good cheer. Ukyo had reminded me of why I was actually here, and now I just couldn't keep my good mood. Sad to say, but mentioning his name also seemed to end her seemingly endless exuberant cheerfulness. The lonely, forlorn look in her eyes as she mentioned him tore at my heart in a way that I'd never felt before, and with a small sigh, I offered her my hand to get up. In the end, neither of us mentioned Ranma again that night.

* * *

Over the next several weeks, I saw a great deal of Ukyo, and after a month of this, I could feel myself falling for her. I also saw her in greater depth: the sadness and pain behind her cheerful smile, the fire behind her friendly eyes, the ego of a martial artist behind the demeanor of a chef. I found these contrasts almost intoxicating, and I think she was warming up to me, too. Then, after nearly two months of seeing her almost daily, it all fell apart.

* * *

"Heya, Ucchan!" I said as I entered the store, but Ukyo was nowhere to be seen. Konatsu was working the bar, and he gave me a quick, if a bit strained, smile. I'll never understand that guy's lifestyle choices, but I won't stone him for it, either.

"Ryu," he said, his voice quiet as usual. "Ukyo-sama is really down today. Maybe you can cheer her up."

"What's the matter, Konatsu?" I asked in reply. "She was fine yesterday."

"Today is the anniversary of when she heard about Ranma's disappearance," replied the kunoichi. "It really seems to be affecting her badly. She's in her room, if you want to go up."

Nodding, I climbed familiar stairs and knocked at the door to Ukyo's room. "Ucchan?" I called out. "Hey, it's Ryu."

I heard some scrambling from the room behind the door, and a moment later, Ukyo opened the door. "Hey Ryu," she said, her usual cheerfulness completely replaced with the melancholy tone of depression. "I'm not feeling too well today. Do you mind if I bow out on our sparring match today?"

Giving her a smile, though my best was a far cry from her worst, I replied, "Don't worry about it. Actually, do you want to talk about it?"

The offer seemed all it took to open the flood gates, and in the daze of her crying, hugging me, and telling me all about her relationship to Ranma, we somehow ended up on the bed with her sobbing on my shoulder and me stroking her hair. As the entire story poured forth, I'm glad she couldn't see my face. I wasn't angry, and I don't think anger would have hurt her. The expression on my face was one of confusion, and that was because it seemed obvious to me, while I was here, that Ranma and Akane were definitely the real thing. That confusion would have hurt Ukyo deeply.

Finally, her sobbing died down to trembling, and she looked up, staring into my eyes with her own beautiful liquid-brown orbs. I still don't remember which of us initiated the first kiss, but the passion was definitely in both of us. We comforted each other as only two lonely adults can, and for the first time in a great while, I slept well, safe in her arms. It was like some wonderful dream, and unfortunately, one must always wake from dreams.

When I woke the next morning, she was gone, though since it was her bed, I assumed that she would be around somewhere. I took my time stretching, feeling out the day before washing up and dressing. I was feeling wonderful, and I figured I didn't need to stink from our activities of the previous night. When I finally made my way downstairs, I was surprised to see Konatsu working the grill again. Looking at the kunoichi quizzically, I could tell from his slightly hard expression that he knew of my dalliance with his employer, and I did feel somewhat guilty at that. While Konatsu was hardly a talkative person, it would take a blind deaf mute quadriplegic not to notice how he felt about Ukyo, and while I was reassured by her complete lack of interest in him, that didn't mean that I wanted to hurt his feelings.

"Good morning, Konatsu," I greeted politely. "Is Ucchan around?"

Konatsu was on the barest edge of politeness with his stiff reply. "Ukyo-sama is on the roof, Kumon-san."

He said something else, but I was already moving up the stairs. I'm not certain what urgency pushed me to go before he finished speaking, but I was on the ladder to the roof before I'd realized I'd moved. At this point, my mind began to speculate, and the possibilities ranged from her being too happy about last night to work all the way down to she was waiting with her battle spatula to kill me for raping her. I certainly thought that her tearing my clothes off was a tacit consent for the act, but if she felt differently, there could be some real trouble.

As I lifted the trapdoor onto the roof, a sound that made me drop the lighter possibilities reached my ears: Ukyo's sobs were the last thing I wanted to hear on a morning that started to nice... for me, anyway. Heedless of the dangers concocted by my imagination, I opened the trap door and climbed out onto the roof.

Ukyo was curled up in a ball on the far back corner of the roof, her back toward me. Her sobs were actually very quiet, but while they probably wouldn't reach the street, my ears heard the heart wrenching sounds quite plainly. As I started toward her, her tear-choked voice called out, "Go away, Konatsu."

Trying to put as much cheer into my voice as I could, I replied, "He's minding the restaurant, Ucchan."

Her gasp at my words precipitated another bout of wracking sobs, and I drew closer, my hand hovering millimeters from her back when she spoke again.

"You listened to me," she choked out between sobs, pushing her way through her tears. "You know what Ranma means to me... And now I've betrayed him, betrayed my love for him... I've given my first time to someone other than him..."

She sounded like she was going to continue along those lines, but my anger wouldn't let me allow her to continue. "Is that all I am!" I shouted at her. "Just a stand in or a replacement for Ranma! Damn it! Am I so far below him that my touch sullies you from ever knowing his, that now you're tainted by sleeping with me!"

I growled in abject frustration and deep anger at her words, and I resented the implication that I was so pathetic. Her wracking sobs got worse as I turned away, and I had roof-hopped most of the way back to my hotel before I realized that I might have just given up the best thing I've ever had.

* * *

It had been a month since that little encounter, and now I was standing in front of the restaurant once more. I hadn't seen or spoken to Ucchan... no Ukyo... in all that time, and I left her crying on the roof. I certainly regretted my decision, but I have no stomach for emotional stuff. Since then, I'd been to Yokohama and the Masaki shrine and run into Ryoga a couple of times, but other than that, my search has been utterly fruitless. And now, here I was again. I just hoped that Ukyo could forgive me. Finally banishing my apprehension at seeing Ukyo once more, I walked through the entrance to Ucchan's Okonomiyaki.

As I brushed aside the shop curtain and entered, I got a complete sense of déjà vu. There was Ukyo, beautiful as ever, standing behind the bar.

"Welcome to Ucchan's!" she called out cheerfully before looking up, a smile already forming on her lips. "Sit where ever ya..." When she did look, her voice trailed off, and the quiet clatter of a dropped spatula accentuated her surprised, open-mouthed expression.

We stood like that for almost a minute before she managed a single, emotion-filled utterance. "Ryu..."

All manner of unhappy thoughts boiled through my head, catalyzed by that one word, and I gave in almost immediately. "I'm sorry," I heard my own voice in an unfamiliar, dejected tone murmur. "I'll go."

Without conscious thought, my body turned from her, and I began to walk away, intent on never returning to darken her doorstep.

"No!" she cried out from behind me. "Please! Ryu, wait!"

The surge of emotion, racing like lightning through my heart, brought me to a frozen stop, and I slowly turned back to face her. Tears were running down her cheeks as she looked into my eyes, and her hands were stretched as though to stop me from leaving even though she was still two meters away, shaking with emotion.

"Ryu," she said quietly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never should have said what I did... Please forgive me..."

I opened my mouth to say that it was nothing, to say that I was at fault too for running off without hearing her out, but instead of the words I so wanted to say, a scream of agony ripped its way out of my throat. Needles of burning ice plunged into my temples, and I fell to my knees, clutching at my head. A vague memory of something similar happening to me in the elevator at the hotel surfaced, but it was a pale, lifeless thing next to the sheer agony of this contact.

'Help me!' came the otherworldly scream of the contact's thoughts, her voice ragged, filled with pain. 'Please help me!'

I thrashed as though in the throes of a seizure, and I wasn't certain that this wasn't one. 'Who the hell are you!' I cried back at the voice in my head, but it either didn't hear me or didn't care. With a final scream that mentally raked barbed blades through my brain, I heard one final message from the entity that telepathically called to me before losing consciousness. 'FREE ME!'

* * *

Author's notes:

Well, I hope you liked this chapter, and there are many more to come in the MMC. The latest crosses are pretty obvious, but at least I'm up to four items crossed! I hope the MMC is living up to its name so far. I'm not sure why I decided to go with first person in this fic, but I liked the feel more than going third for the whole thing. Suffice to say, first person parts are from Kumon Ryu's perspective, and while I plan to have one or two other third person parts (like the prologue), most of the fic will be in first person. Later, all.


	3. Chapter 2: Fate

Knights of the Dark Goddess

An MMC fanfic by jimra

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to try to name all the stuff I'm crossing here, so sufficed to say that I own nothing but the continuity, and I'm flexible on that.

* * *

Chapter Two: Fate

* * *

As I began to come back to awareness, I received two strange, conflicting sensations. First, there was the incredible aching pain in my head, something akin to the worst hangover I've ever experienced, only more so. The pain nearly drove away the other feeling, but it wasn't quite able to erase it completely. That sensation was something warm and soft pressed against me, and I pulled that something tighter in an attempt to use the comfort to drive away my pain. 

With my source of comfort close, I began to sort through my memories, trying to figure out what on earth had happened to leave me in this state. I couldn't remember drinking yesterday, but then again, I could have blacked out... Dim remembrances of riding my bike in search of food and going to Ucchan's without thinking about it came to my mind, but I dismissed them since Ukyou and I aren't on the best of terms right now. Finally, something clicked in my mind, and I tried to open my eyes.

Operant word: tried. As soon as my eyelids slid open I clenched them shut again against blinding lances of sunlight, my headache pounding from the unexpected assault on my optic nerves. I groaned from the pain, clutching more tightly to my warm bedmate, and my source of comfort squeezed me back, confirming that it was indeed a person.

Much more cautiously, I barely cracked my clenched eyes, and through the still seemingly blinding light, I caught a glimpse of chestnut hair and closed eyes set in a beautiful face. If it weren't for the pain in my head, I would have laughed out loud. Whether or not I could remember it, I guessed that Ukyou and I made up.

Suddenly, my bedmate's eyes fluttered and slowly opened, looking into mine with concern. "Ryu..." her whisper boomed in my ears, causing my head to pound more. She must have seen me wince because she gripped me tighter and the worry in her eyes doubled.

I forced myself to breath deeply and evenly, and in a hoarse voice, I asked, "Do you have any painkillers?"

She nodded hesitantly and slowly disengaged herself from me; I missed the warmth of her body immediately. As I watched her go, I was treated to an impromptu display of a female body in all its glory, and then I realized that I, too, was nude under the covers of Ukyou's futon. This fact pretty well reinforced the supposition that we made up, but I really wished that I remembered what happened.

A moment later, Ukyou returned with a glass of water and three small pills. I downed the pills and the water as quickly as I could, and just before I fell back asleep I heard Ukyou whisper, "I'll go make some breakfast, Ryu. You just rest."

* * *

Waking up the second time wasn't nearly as bad as the first; I guess the painkillers took effect. A minor, dull pain in the back of my head remained, but it wasn't the soul-searing agony of my earlier headache. Slowly, I stretched my stiff muscles and rose from the extremely comfortable futon, though not nearly as comfortable as it had been when its owner had been with me. Taking a brief glance around, I confirmed that this was indeed Ukyou's bedroom, and neatly folded on the nearby tatami were my clothes. It was at that moment that a delicious smell reached my nose, and my stomach decided, at that point, to remind me that I still hadn't eaten with a loud growl. 

I dressed as quickly as I could and made my way down the familiar stairs into the restaurant's dining area. Ukyou was standing behind the grill cooking what looked to be my favorite okonomiyaki, but she jumped when she saw me.

"I wasn't expecting you to be up for another hour or so, sugar," she said in a low but still cheery voice. "You looked really out of it yesterday."

"About that," I replied, sitting down across from her at the bar. "What exactly happened? Did we get drunk or something?"

Ukyou looked at me quizzically for a moment before answering, "Drunk? No, that would have been more fun, I think. You showed up here out of the blue and collapsed! I was really worried about you, especially when you didn't wake up when I was shaking you. If your pulse and breathing hadn't been strong, I would have taken you to a hospital!"

Suddenly, after her outburst, Ukyou looked down, and in a small voice she said, "You didn't even tell me if I was forgiven before you went out..."

"Forgiven...?" I began, and tears welled up in her eyes before I realized what she was talking about. Just waking up with her in my arms for the first time had completely driven our argument from my mind. Before she could really start the waterworks, I jumped over the bar and pulled her into an embrace. "Ukyou... Ucchan... there is nothing to forgive. We both over-reacted, and I've never been very good at dealing with stuff I think is an insult... or with this mushy stuff..."

I felt Ukyou's arms encircle me once more, and her body pressed against mine in a tight embrace. Rather than waste time with any more words, I lifted her chin and poured all my passion for her into one fiery kiss, and surprisingly to me, she responded with just as much.

After a while, Ukyou broke the kiss and nuzzled her head against my chest. I barely heard her whisper, "I'm so glad you're back, Ryu."

Unfortunately, the universe decided that now was the time to interrupt our little lovey-dovey seen, and it did so with the smell of burning okonomiyaki. Ukyou squawked at the smell and quickly turned to the grill, our breakfast rapidly blackening on the iron cooking surface.

"Oh no!" the chestnut haired girl moaned as she began scraping the blackened bits of okonomiyaki off the griddle. "I'm sorry, Ryu. Breakfast is going to be a little longer."

I walked back around to my seat at the bar, smiling at her. "Don't worry about it, Ucchan," I replied, though my stomach decided that it was time to argue with my brain with a loud growl. I smiled sheepishly, embarrassed, but I pressed on. "I know you're the 'fastest spatula in Japan'."

Even as I spoke, I saw her hands go to work on five new okonomiyaki, rapidly flipping the Japanese pancakes while adding toppings and sauce, and in five minutes flat, Ukyou served her famed specialty on two plates, three on mine and two on hers. My first okonomiyaki was gone before Ukyou managed to walk around the bar to her seat next to me, and my second was half done even as she took her first bite. Between rapid bites of delicious food, I managed to say, "Great as always, Ucchan."

She giggled at my compliment, and surprisingly enough considering the speed of my eating, we actually finished our food at about the same time. "Well," Ukyou said. "I'm going to have to open the restaurant soon. It's Saturday, and we actually get a breakfast crowd on the weekend."

I nodded to Ukyou and asked, "Do you need any help prepping the store?"

"Nope," she answered in her usual, cheerful voice. "But thanks, sugar. I got most of the prep done while you were sleeping."

"Alright," I replied. "I think I'll go take a ride on my bike to clear my head. I need to figure out what happened to me yesterday."

Ukyou nodded to me, but her face began to show some worry when I mentioned yesterday. "I moved your bike to the alley beside the restaurant. You gonna be back for lunch, sugar?"

"You can count on it." I flashed her one last smile as I stepped outside.

* * *

As I rode my bike out of Nerima and back to Shinjuku, I thought about how much Tokyo had gone to hell between when I was here searching for the Umisenken and now. Kiddy biker gangs aside, there were numerous protests about this or that government decision, and there was even this strange cult preaching something or other about some messiah they called Akira. Crazy as it sounds, it's like they're praying for the end of the world or some crap like that. Either way, I didn't believe any of it; I just saw how they were wrecking the city. It was a wreck, too, though Nerima had missed most of the damage, thankfully. The state of the city reminded me of one of those post-apocalyptic animes from the eighties... 

The streets and traffic were a blur as I made my way back to my hotel, intent on finally moving out of my room there. I hadn't asked Ucchan if I could stay with her yet, but judging by how we woke up, I didn't think she'd refuse. Besides getting to spend more time with the best girl I'd ever met, it would cost a lot less to stay there. All in all, a completely good situation. Even as I swung my bike around to park in front of the hotel entrance, my headache finally faded.

I entered the lobby, intent on the elevators, but once again, a clerk in the hotel's old fashioned uniform barred my path. "Kumon-san," he said, his tone serious, and I took a moment to get a gauge of the man. He was of average height and build, but there was something about the way he stood that made me less likely to dismiss him as I had the other hotel employees.

"Kumon-san," he repeated in the same tone, returning my attention to his words. "The money you paid Yuzuchi-san last night was enough to cover the last four days, but we must insist that you pay in advance from this point forward."

Sneering at him, I caustically replied, "That's fine. I was just going up to my room for my stuff. I'll be checking out."

Considering that I'd been in this hotel for nearly a month, that news should have surprised the clerk, but his steely gaze did not change. "Very well, Kumon-san," he answered evenly. "Will you require assistance with your luggage?"

After shaking my head, I moved around the clerk and to the elevator, my mood considerably darker. It was one thing to look forward to living with Ucchan, but it was quite another to get kicked out of my hotel and have live with her. I wasn't really one for charity...

I gathered my things quickly, not that I had many possessions. Two more sets of my camouflage outfits, including underwear, went into my back pack, along with my spare tac harness, and then I gathered my toiletries from the bathroom and added them, in a small camp case, to the items. The few keepsakes I still had from my father, a photo, a gi belt, and of course, the scroll containing the Yamasenken, rounded out all my belongings. Finally, I slung my pack on my back and headed out.

That same clerk met me in the lobby once again, a few bills in his hand. "Here is what remains of your security deposit, Kumon-san," he said, his voice never leaving a steely calm. "I hope you enjoyed your stay."

Not feeling like a fight at that moment, regardless of how this guy was rubbing me wrong, I simply took the money, shoved it into a pocket on my tac harness, and left. Something just told me that kicking that guy's ass wasn't worth the trouble.

Stepping out into the morning sunlight, I got on my bike, my mind hardly on where I was going. Riding relaxed me; in fact, it was the original reason I got a motorcycle. I revved the bike, kicked up the stand, and cut off at least three people riding into traffic, not that I cared. I still needed to clear my head.

As I rode, I considered my options. Sure, I could go with my original plan and ask Ukyou if I could stay with her, but that smacked of charity now. There was nothing I despised more than someone offering me charity. I could go stay in a park or camp in a vacant lot, like I'd done so many times on my training journey-

My thoughts cut off when a large source of ki made itself apparent to my senses, and I pulled my bike over to the side of the street, scanning the crowd. Being a martial artist, I always kept an eye out for potential threats, and at closer inspection, the two ki signatures I was sensing definitely counted as threats. Both were almost as powerful as my own ki.

Finally, I spotted them. A man and a woman were walking down the street, both garbed in Chinese style. The guy, wearing a green scale vest with matching bracers and white silk pants, was vaguely familiar, but my eyes were drawn to the woman. The girl wore a diaphanous silk pantsuit where only the long-tailed, sleeveless jacket was opaque, and her hair, ornaments braided throughout the jet locks, hung to the small of her back. I was certain I'd never seen her before, but something seemed absolutely familiar about her. That's when the pressure returned.

I clutched my head through my helmet, leaning forward on the bike. The other's thoughts, a soft hiss like whetstone honing a blade, whispered in my head. "Mine. Mine."

The pressure intensified, and I pit my lip to avoid crying out, the coppery taste of blood filling my mouth. Then, just as quickly as it began, the pressure vanished, and with it, the mental contact. I sat on my bike gasping for breath, and when I looked up, the two were gone. I could, however, still sense their ki, and parking my bike where it was, I followed after them. I needed to figure out what the hell this was...

It didn't take long for me to catch up to them, perhaps half an hour; ki like theirs was easy to track in a city with so many weak people. The moment I laid eyes on the girl, the pressure returned, but it was a light, skittering thing, jumping and skipping across my mind without debilitating me. I followed them through the throngs of Shinjuku east, and we rapidly left the crowds behind as they lead me to a, shall we say, less affluent area of Tokyo. These slums certainly had seen better days...

Finally, they turned down an alley, and to me, their intent was obvious. Anyone with that much ki could sense me just as well as I could sense them, and now, they wanted to confront their shadow. Being the polite person that I am, I obliged, walking around the corner in the most non-threatening manner I could.

The fist almost tagged me, but I managed a last minute dodge. The follow-up, however, caught me in the chest, and I barely managed to rebound off the alley wall. Even as I regained my feet, I had to duck a flying kick, but now I was getting angry. I came up in an offensive stance and moved to attack my opponent, the male of the duo I'd been following. My initial attack, an easy three punch combo was easily defended, but it was just a feint. The idiot I was fight, however, obviously didn't know that since he took one of the three counters the feint was designed to exploit. When the boy snagged my arm for a painful lock and throw, I went with the motion, flipping over his head to relieve the pressure on my elbow and shoulder. Leaning forward, I applied my own lock, lifting the guy onto my back and threatening to dislocate both shoulder and elbow should he struggle. Finally, from this rather awkward position, I said, "Well damn. All I really wanted was to talk to you two, but a nice relaxing fight is good too."

"Well, if you just want to talk," replied my prisoner through teeth gritted against the pain of my hold, "then let me down and we'll talk."

I considered that, and since I'd handled him easily enough the first time, I shrugged, forgetting what that would do to my opponent until I heard a grunt of pain. Almost sheepishly, I released his twisted arm, spinning quickly as to not present my undefended back if he should not honor his word. My sometime opponent was working his left shoulder when I turned, his face once again tickling my mind with familiarity, and it was then I heard the giggling of his female companion.

"Well, Taro," the girl said through her light laughter. "It would seem that you are not such a good protector after all."

When I looked at the girl, the pressure in my mind increased, though not quite to painful levels, and I quickly looked back at the boy she'd named Taro, the familiarity finally clicking.

"Taro!" I said with a good deal more cheer than before. "I haven't seen you in about a year and a half!"

Taro's eyes narrowed briefly before recognition widened them, a rare, nonsardonic smirk coming to his face. "I thought I recognized that style," he said. "Good to see you again, Kumon. You ever get your revenge on Fem-boy?"

A reminder of why I was in Tokyo returned my face to an expressionless mask, and I replied, "I haven't even found Saotome, much less gotten to fight him."

Taro shrugged and was about to speak again when his female companion slugged him on the shoulder. Rubbing the spot, he angrily asked, "What the hell did you do that for, woman!"

The Chinese girl had fire in her eyes at his reply, and I was almost certain she was going to slap him. Instead, she snapped, "Well, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"This guy isn't really a friend," Taro snapped back, and I had the distinct impression that they had forgotten that I was listening. "He's just a guy I trained with a while back."

The girl crossed her arms beneath her breasts, tapping a sandaled foot and narrowing her eyes. Taro stared back defiantly for almost two minutes before his shoulders sagged and he gave up. "Fine, fine," he growled, and under his breath I could have sworn he mumbled, "Overbearing witch..." From the way the girl punched him again I figured that I must have heard right. Taro must really like this girl to take that kind of abuse from her... or maybe I wasn't remembering him right.

"Kumon, this is Rouge," Taro introduced in a tight voice. "Rouge, this is Kumon. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Rouge deadpanned to her companion. "No wonder I called you 'vulgar one' when we first met." Turning to me, she spoke in a much kinder voice. "I am pleased to meet you, Kumon-san. I don't know how you have the misfortune of knowing my boyfriend, but I suppose any friend of his is a friend of mine."

That was quite an... interesting... relationship they had, but upon remembering how Ranma and Akane treated each other when there was no external threat, I could see how that might work.

Still, the pressure remained in my mind, spiking anytime I looked at Rouge, though it never reached painful levels and the other's thoughts never entered my mind. After a little obligatory small talk, Rouge suggested that we find a café for lunch, and even with my big breakfast, I was certainly hungry enough to eat. Taro made the decision unanimous, and we started making our way back toward Shinjuku, or so we thought.

As we exited the alley, the sound of revving bikes drew my attention, and I saw a familiar, tricked-out red motorcycle come to a stop across the road, twenty other bikes rushing to catch it. The twenty pursuers circled the stopped bike, and I recognized the clowns from before. Two kids, one boy and one girl, got off the red motorcycle, and I recognized the boy. Tetsuo.

Most of the clowns circled the pair, but four rode into the circle and got off their bikes. "Hey, kid!" yelled one, punctuating his statement by grabbing Tetsuo by the collar and clocking him. "You think you can get away with making fools of us?"

When the girl tried to help, another of the clowns grabbed her by her shirt, tearing off the thin material when he punched her into the wall. "Kaori!" Tetsuo cried, but his answer was another punch to the face. Even from across the street, I could see the blood flowing from the kid's broken nose.

Considering that, for some reason, I wanted to help this kid since the first time I saw him, I'd had just about enough, and I was about to go kick some ass when two more bikes arrived on the scene. A kid in a red jumpsuit, also remebered from the last time I saw Tetsuo, jumped off the back of the leading bike and rushed into the clown's midst. "Tetsuo!" he yelled, laying into the stupid-looking bikers.

Still, it was five against twenty, and one of the ones of Tetsuo's side, the girl, obviously didn't know how to fight. Even as the kid in the red jumpsuit was being overpowered by four of the clowns, I rushed into the fight. My first opponent was pathetic, even wielding an old pipe, and after dodging his swing, I buried my fist in his gut. I didn't look back as that clown emptied the contents of his stomach onto the pavement, and I took the second biker by surprise, unloading an open handed strike to the back of his bald, painted skull. The idiot's head bounced off the asphalt and he lay still.

After I'd downed my third clown, the others seemed to realize that I was a worse threat than Tetsuo and his crew, and five of the clowns still on motorcycles started circling me. Since that meant they had a bit more speed, I dropped into a defensive crouch and waited for the first one stupid enough to attack me. Too bad they never had the chance.

Taro joined the fight then, yelling, "Hey! Don't hog all the fun!" Pantyhose's first kick nailed one of the clowns circling me and knocked him, bike and all, into another of the mounted bikers, bowling both into the wall. With the other three distracted, I jumped onto the back of another bike, using a palm heel strike to the rider's temple to knock him from the machine. Taro and I each took one of the remaining two pathetic clowns, him by snagging the clown around the neck with some pantyhose and pulling the biker from his motorcycle. I preferred something a bit more personal, and after abandoning my commandeered bike, pathetic compared to my own, I snagged piece of broken pipe from the ground. As the clown tried to pass me, running from the fight, I jammed the pipe between the spokes of his front wheel. The clown flew into a building across the street with a sickening crunch after his bike flipped, and I turned back to the fight, looking for more opponents. What I found was Red Jumpsuit looking suspiciously at Taro and me.

"Why did you help us?" he asked, but before I could answer, another of the boys punched him in the arm.

"Ya know, Kaneda," he admonished, "we really oughta thank them. Those clowns were gonna rip us up."

Gritting his teeth, Kaneda said, "Alright, thanks. Now, why did you help us... and who's that beautiful girl?"

I heard Taro growl, and I knew that for the kid's continued health, he shouldn't talk about Rouge like that again. Trying to head off the impending conflict, I nonchalantly replied, "Because I wanted to. What's it to ya."

Kaneda gave me a weird look, turned away, and started berating Tetsuo. "What the hell were you thinking, Tetsuo!"

For his part, Tetsuo growled back as well as he could with blood streaming down his face, but he still took the small towel Kaneda offered him and started cleaning up his face. "Shut up, Kaneda."

A few minutes later, it seemed like the whole gang had forgotten our presence, because Tetsuo grabbed up the leader of the group that attacked him and started laying into him, punching and kicking relentlessly as the wall held up the unfortunate clown. Finally, just before I was going to stop the kid, Kaneda caught his fist.

"You're going to kill him, Tetsuo!" yelled the red clad boy. "Is that what you want!"

Snarling at Kaneda, Tetsuo growled back, "He hurt Kaori!"

I was about to speak up when my danger sense went off the scale, and the pressure in my mind increased to a painful level. Even as I clutched my head, I saw Tetsuo doing the same, falling to his knees. Thankfully, the seizure that seemed to be gripping the boy didn't extend to me beyond the headache, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I watched Tetsuo.

As quickly as it intensified, the pressure relented, and a more familiar sensation, something that had warned me in the past of impending attack, coiled in my gut. Rarely was my danger sense wrong, and I wasn't one to disregard it. Glancing at Taro, I knew that he sensed it too, and by silent, mutual agreement, we made ourselves scarce, ducking back into the alley. A moment later, two helicopters and three trucks with JSDF markings swarmed on the scene, and the three of us decided it would be better to be elsewhere.

* * *

It had taken a while, walking my bike so that Taro and Rouge could keep up, but we arrived back at Ucchan's in the afternoon. I stowed my bike in the alley where Ucchan had put it the night before and led my companions into the surprisingly empty restaurant. 

"Hello? Ucchan?" I called into the interior, and the girl appeared from the door into the kitchen.

"Hey, Ryu!" she called, coming forward and greeting me with a kiss. Too bad a scornful laugh from behind ruined the moment.

"So now you're not just taking Fem-boy's name," said Taro, the sneer evident in his voice, "you're taking his iinazuke too?"

I felt Ukyou tense in my arms, but before she could move, Taro was knocked to the ground from behind, an angry Rouge standing there with her hands on her hips. "Shut up, Pantyhose! We're guests here!"

Taro was back on his feet in an instant, staring Rouge right in the eyes, but the sable haired girl glared right back with equal fire. I was certain that they were going to fight, especially after Rouge called Taro by his given name. However, after a long minute, the sometime minotaur smiled, wrapping his arms around Rouge and kissing her, and the Chinese girl equally surprised me by melting into tall boy's embrace, kissing back with equal fire. Ukyou and I blinked, not sure what to make of it; there had to be some major history behind that kind of reaction.

I recovered before Ukyou, and shrugging my shoulders, I continued our kiss where we'd left off, the world fading for a few precious moments to just us. The warmth of her body, pressed against mine was the world, and the burning passion of our kiss was the sun. The kiss trailed off after an indeterminate time, and before the world reassured itself, I stared into her beautiful eyes. Finally, reluctantly, Ukyou pulled away from me and looked suspiciously at the duo that followed me home.

The enchantment of the moment ended with the scrape of a chair, and Ukyou's eyes changed when she once again saw my guests. "What are you doing here, Pantyhose?" she asked caustically, and Taro answered with a growl, causing Rouge to put a restraining hand on his shoulder. Turning to Ukyou, I said, "Let's try to be a bit civil here, Ucchan. I met Taro in China, and I know he hates that name."

Ukyou sighed, but she nodded her assent. "Alright," she repeated in a more cordial voice. "What are you doing here, Taro?"

With his normal superior smirk, the boy answered, "Why am I ever in Japan? I'm gonna get the old man to change my name for sure, this time!"

Rouge smacked him in the back of the head, adding testily, "I thought we were here to remember old times. You know, like how we first met!"

Taro's dark look melted into one I never thought possible on his arrogant, bishonen face, a sheepish grin. "Sorry Rouge," he told his girlfriend.

Ukyou had rolled her eyes when Taro responded, but she could only stare at the exchange. I could only assume that the behavior was unusual. "Well," replied the brunette. "You know as well as I do that Happosai vanished right after Ranchan did. Last I heard, you and Rouge didn't get along too well."

Blinking at the rapid reversal, Taro said, "She grew on me." That response made Rouge roll her eyes.

"The 'vulgar one' became nicer after we managed to talk rather than fight," she said. "I don't know why, but we seem drawn together."

Ukyou laughed out loud at that explanation and walked around the bar. At my questioning look, she said, "I wasn't in town the first time Rouge showed up, but Ranchan told me all about it. From the story, I'd never have thought to see the two of them in the same room. Well, without destroying it, anyway."

Rouge giggled at the implication while Taro gave Ukyou a slightly dark look, but I couldn't help but be amused by the whole situation. Rather than continue the conversation there, Ukyou walked back around to her grill and beckoned us over to seats at the bar. "What'll you guys have?"

"Seafood combination," answered Rouge after taking her seat, Taro, surprisingly, politely pushing in her stool before sitting himself.

"Pork," ordered the sometime minotaur.

I just grinned at Ukyou when she looked at me, saying, "You know what I like." Her answering blush told me that she got the innuendo, but the deluxe combination okonomiyaki she started for me would have to suffice for now.

We chatted about nothing for the five or six minutes it took for Ukyou to finish our food; the weather, current events, and rumors about ancient, super powerful martial artists all entered and left the conversation before each of us had a hot okonomiyaki on a plate before us. Ukyou had made one for herself as well, and she slid into the stool next to me to eat.

A quick three minutes later we were all finished, and I almost lamented the fact that we ate the food quicker than the chef could cook it. 'Ah well,' I thought. 'Such is the life of a martial artist.'

Unfortunately, just as we were finishing our food, two separate parties of customers entered the building, and it was back to work for my Ucchan. I excused myself, knowing this was the beginnings of the dinner rush, and my two Chinese companions followed me out.

After walking my bike here all the way from the edge of Shinjuku, I was ready for a good, long, and particularly fast ride, and I said as much. After straddling my bike, I looked over at Taro and Rouge. "You guys staying in the area?" I asked in a neutral tone.

"Yeah," replied Taro. "We got a hotel room. Why?"

I smirked at my former sparring partner, revving my bike before answering, "Just wondering if I might see ya around."

Without waiting for a reply, I gunned the engine on my bike and wove into traffic, speeding back toward Shinjuku. I knew it wasn't the polite thing to do, but I get sick of polite real quick.

* * *

As near as I could tell, I was riding next to a canal in northern Minato, pondering why that strange presence in my head grew stronger when ever Rouge and Taro were nearby, when I heard it, something I hadn't heard since I took that training trip to the United States right before coming to Nerima the first time. Gunshots. Considering that firearms were very illegal in Japan, it seemed like a good idea to investigate. I mean, since everything in Tokyo was growing more and more violent, it would be nice to have a gun. 

I dropped the kickstand on my bike quick enough and hopped the fence, landing in the knee deep water of the canal. It was at times like these that I was grateful that I wasn't one of those poor saps with a Jusenkyo curse, and without hesitation I started slogging my way through the murky water toward where I'd heard the shots. It was late in the evening, and the canal was full of deep shadows. That certainly didn't make my job any easier, and I almost ran right into the line of fire.

In the muzzle flashes, I saw a girl who couldn't be older than fifteen firing a small, semiautomatic pistol, and good or bad, her aim was true. The uniformed man she'd fired at screamed as a bullet ripped half his face off, spraying blood everywhere. Another security type ran up, yelling at her, as the first one slid into the water. I was about to lend her a hand since I wanted to get my hands on that gun, but that same kid in the red jumpsuit beat me to it. The kid, Kaneda, must have vaulted down from the fence guarding the top of the canal, because he landed on the other uniformed man from almost directly above with enough force to knock him out.

"Kei!" he called out to the girl, rushing toward her with all the speed he could muster in the water, and even in this light I could see her shaking. Kei, or at least I assumed that was her name, was standing there with wide eyes, her hands barely gripping the pistol, and I quickly realized what happened. This was her first kill, and I knew that wasn't easy. I spent years honing the Yamasenken, and practicing such a violent art in underground pit fights to support myself led to more than a few deaths at my hand. Killing was never easy, and I supposed it never should be.

Deciding I should lend a hand, especially since I could hear more shouting from what sounded like more security creeps, I too started toward the girl. Just as Kaneda and I reached her, two more uniforms carrying really bright flashlights showed up, and even as I noted the red kid's suspicious glare, I spared him no attention. I may not be able to use the Yamasenken any more, but I could still fight.

Snagging the gun out of the girl's unresisting hands, I placed two precise shots in the hunters' flashlights, effectively blinding them. That weapons training I did in America really paid off. Then, after flicking the safety on and tucking the gun into my pants at the small of my back, I snagged each of the kids around the waste and leapt out of the canal. With the extra weight, I had to make it in three jumps, finding precarious footing on the sharply slanting walls of the canal, but I made it without mishap.

Even back on the street, I didn't chance that the kids could run fast enough to elude pursuit, so without putting them down, I sprinted away, taking curves at random through narrow alleys and side streets. Finally, after I'd put at least a mile of distance between us and Kei's pursuers, I set them down... just to catch a punch from Kaneda in my left hand. Honestly, I had expected something like that since I made a fool of him in front of a girl he was obviously trying to impress, but that didn't change the angry look on my face when he actually did it.

"I just saved your life, kid," I growled at red boy, squeezing his fist in my palm enough that I could hear his knuckles pop. "You wanna rethink that response?"

Kaneda's eyes widened as I nearly crushed his hand, but at the last moment I released my grip. While he stood there, shaking his hand to regain feeling, I looked over at the girl. Kei's eyes were still glazed a bit, but now she was looking at me wide-eyed. I really hope this isn't some kind of hero worship thing...

Shaking her head, Kei finally snapped out of it, and with only a brief and puzzling "Thank you for helping me" to each of us, she started off down the alley, that Kaneda boy following her. While I didn't understand the response, and I knew it wasn't really any of my business, I couldn't just dismiss this as coincidence any more. Between the weird pressure in my head and 'randomly' running into that Kaneda kid and his gang so much, I knew there had to be something going on.

Before the two kids could get out of sight, I checked the clip on my new piece, noting it only had seven shots left. Shrugging, I returned it into the back of my pants and started shadowing the kids. Somehow, even though I knew I had to do this, I also had a really bad feeling about this.

* * *

Even though Kei certainly led a convoluted path, the fact that Kaneda would never shut up made them easy to track, and now I was sitting in an air duct, obviously listening to some sort of terrorist meeting. I didn't understand all the talk about some lab and something they called "the numbers," but I could tell from the ordinance they had on the table that they meant serious business. Getting AK47's and C4 in Japan was just too hard unless you wanted to cause some serious mayhem. Surprisingly enough, it looked like the leader of this little cell was actually the hotel clerk I'd seen that morning. 

The team they assigned to infiltrating the lab, including the two kids I'd made the subjects of my new and troubling guardian angel fixation, left quite a while before I could get out of the ducting system, and it was pure luck that I managed to get a good look at the map to the place. Since those idiots left a sentry, I couldn't just drop out of the duct and walk out. Instead, I had to wriggle my way through the damn air ducts through half the building, at last shimmying up a vertical shaft and out onto the roof. Those two kids were going to owe me big when this was all over...

I stretched for a minute, working the kinks from my muscles from being in an enclosed space for so long, but I guess I was too absorbed in my work because there was a sudden tap on my shoulder. I jumped fifteen meters away by reflex, spinning in the air to land in a defensive crouch, but I almost fell on my face when I saw who'd surprised me.

"Hey jackass!" Ukyou yelled, preempting my own indignant shout. "What was that all about?"

Actually having leapt to another roof in my reflexive action, I jumped back quickly, swallowing my embarrassment before replying, "You surprised me."

Annoyance changed amusement in a flash, and the chestnut haired chef giggled, much to my chagrin.

"How did you find me?" I asked, almost as much to stop her giggling as to answer the question.

Ukyou sobered almost immediately. "I'm actually not sure," she answered, her voice sounding almost haunted. "I just got this overwhelming feeling that you would need me tonight, so I closed down the shop and left. Then, when I was looking, it was almost like I could sense you. Like a pressure in the back of my mind, or something."

That set off all sorts of warning bells in my mind considering my recent experiences, but one thing that battle teaches you is to prioritize. If I was going to help those kids, stuff like strange mental contacts were going to have to wait, and I knew I had to help those kids. Enfolding Ukyou in a quick embrace and kissing her for one long deep moment, I said, "Well, we can talk about that later, Ucchan. For now, you had the right feeling."

Rather than ask any questions, Ukyou simply nodded, and after she pulled away, I noticed for the first time that she was fully armed in her school's tradition, including minispatula shuriken and had huge primary weapon. Without a second thought, I turned in the direction indicated on that remembered map and began to roof hop toward the lab.

* * *

The lab was a scene of chaos when we arrived, compete with helicopters circling, definite signs of explosions everywhere, and a huge number of JSDF troops running around like headless chickens. In all the chaos, it was relatively easy for Ukyou and me to slip into the building through a blown-out window on the fourth floor of the building. Following my instincts, I led Ukyou through a maze of shattered corridors and crumpled corpses, headed toward kami knew what. 

The inside of the building was as much a mess as the outside, and we actually encountered no living troops. I followed the trail of destruction to a crumpled steel door, the sounds of fighting coming from beyond. I only recognized one of the voices, and surprisingly, it was that kid named Tetsuo.

"Tell me what the hell is happening to me!" the kid shouted, and multiple, indistinct voices answered him too softly for me to understand them. Motioning for Ukyou to keep out of sight, we stole into the room.

The chamber was huge, and the motif reminded me of a baby's nursery, only on a grand scale. Toys taller than I was were scattered around, and what looked like a castle mock up stood near the center. This giant's nursery hadn't escaped the damage I'd seen in the rest of the building, and my eyes widened when I saw what had caused it all. Tetsuo simply swiped an arm through the air, and it looked like reality rippled: walls cracked and crumbled, the floor surged forward in a wave of debris from its own destruction, and an unseen wind buffeted the kid's enemies. I could sense the power Tetsuo was using in a similar manner to my ki sense, but it definitely wasn't ki.

The kid's enemies were another sight to behold; were it not for their grey, wrinkled skin and white hair, I would swear that they were children no older than eight. There were three of them, and they seemed to be manipulating the same energy as Tetsuo, albeit to a much lesser degree. Between the three of them, they could barely hold off his assault, and while I didn't know how I knew that, I didn't have time for theoretical questions at that moment.

Ukyou and I crouched behind an alphabet block the size of a large dog house to watch the ensuing chaos, and it seemed that we found our hiding place not a moment too soon. Not even a minute after we hid, JSDF troops flooded into the room, and a tall, bald man with a precise mustache yelled, "Stop this at once! Tetsuo!"

The kid turned and growled at the JSDF commander, and I figured the guy was in for a messy death. Surprisingly, Tetsuo didn't tear him apart. Instead, he retorted, "And what, huh? Take my medicine like a good little boy and join your little kindergarten!"

"Just calm down, Tetsuo," replied the commander in what I assumed he thought was a soothing voice. "You need the medicine to stabilize your powers. Just come with us and everything will be alright."

The snarl growing on Tetsuo's face with ever word the JSDF guy said didn't bode well for him, but everyone was preempted by another voice.

"Hey Tetsuo!" Kaneda yelled from the back of what looked like a small helicopter without the rotors. "We're here to rescue you!"

The contraption, regardless of a complete lack of aerodynamics and obvious ability, flew into the nursery, and I saw Kei clinging to Kaneda's back. Looking back at Tetsuo, I saw the kid's rage transfer to his red-clad friend. Slumping, I couldn't help mumbling, "Why the hell did I decide to help these kids...?"

The wave of force shot from Tetsuo to the flying vehicle in the blink of an eye, but Kaneda had some skill, crashing only a couple of meters from the empowered boy. He even managed to avoid getting injured, somehow.

Unfortunately for him, Tetsuo was in a rage, screaming, "I have the power now, Kaneda! From now on, I'll do the rescuing!"

While Tetsuo started laughing manically, I stared in disbelief as Kaneda stalked up to him, regardless of the danger, and yelled back, "I said I'm here to rescue you, ya idiot! Now come on!"

The wave of force I'd expected from the beginning came now, though it was only enough to throw Kaneda into the castle wall mock-up, its sheet rock construction crumbling from the force of the blow. After the dust cleared, Kaneda, now covered in grey dust, just lay there coughing while Tetsuo laughed triumphantly.

"I told you!" he yelled at the other boy, force making the air around him ripple and distort. "I have the power, and now I'm going to show you!"

Still laughing, Tetsuo launched himself into the air and outside through a large, plate glass window, shattering it in the process. As I watched the kid fly away, I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, I'd bitten off more than I could chew trying to help these kids.

Since Tetsuo was gone, that JSDF commander stopped yelling, but even though I couldn't hear him, I saw three troopers grab Kaneda and Kei at his command and start hauling them off. At that point, I really, really tried to will away my need to go help them, but it was to no avail. Even if they were idiots, I needed to help them, even that cocky, over powered Tetsuo...

Motioning for Ukyou to follow me, we managed to sneak out of the nursery under the collective nose of the entire JSDF contingent, and in a hallway deserted but for captors, captives, and us, we made our move. Three obviously green soldiers were no match for two highly trained martial artists, and we made quick work of the captors with fists, feet, and giant spatula. I almost laughed out loud when I saw Kaneda's and Kei's faces.

"Who the hell are you!" exclaimed Kaneda, his disbelief all consuming, and I was seriously considering knocking him out just to shut him up. Kei's eyes were no less surprised, but she had the good sense to keep quiet. I mouthed 'shut up' to Kaneda, snagged him around the waist, and slung him over my shoulder like a sack of rice. Next to me, Ukyou was doing the same to Kei, and we ran. I was ready to make good on knocking Kaneda out if he opened his big mouth, but for once the little idiot managed to keep quiet.

Finding our entrance still unimpeded, Ukyou and I made our exit by leaping from roof to roof, heading for her restaurant.

* * *

When we landed outside of Ucchan's and finally set down our cargo, I was surprised to note that both Taro and Rouge were waiting outside the darkened restaurant. The puzzled look on Taro's face when we set down two kids was priceless, but I decided not to mention it. Somehow, I was more curious about what these two kids could tell me, and why I felt this need to help them. Taro and Rouge didn't ask any questions as Ukyou opened the store, and they quietly followed us in with the kids. 

The light pressure in my head seemed to skitter and twitch with excitement at the sight of the other five people in the restaurant, and the fluctuations in contact were disconcerting to say the least. Somehow, I knew that despite all I'd seen, this was only the beginning, and with that thought, the pressure increased to an almost painful level in agreement.

* * *

Author's Notes: 

There we go; chapter two of Knights is all done. This fic is slated to have a total of five chapters, a prologue, an epilogue, and an interlude, and I have no intention of breaking the chapters up into parts like in Negawarrior. Like I said at the beginning of the fic, this is meant to be a short one.

If some of the Ranma ½ characters seem OOC, please remember that this takes place three years later. People do change over time, even 'vulgar ones' and Asura-cursed girls (especially when they start associating with 'vulgar ones'). Any problems with the Akira characters can be attributed to how long it's been since I've seen Akira, and no, I've never read the manga.

As always, I'd like to thank my prereaders for their help with my fics, even if it wasn't the one they signed on to preread at first. Unfortunately, this version is unsanctioned by my prereaders, but I'll update with a preread version as soon as I hear from them. Next up, Chapter Three: Pain! Later, all.


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